Intro -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1 Global Sexual Spaces and Their Hierarchies -- 2 "Me La Busco": Looking for Life in the Dominican Pleasure Industry -- 3 "Orgullo Gay Dominicano": Shifting Cultural Politics of Sexual Identity in Santo Domingo -- 4 Familial Discretions: Unveiling the Other Side of Sex Work -- 5 "Love," Finance, and Authenticity in Gay Sex Tourism -- 6 AIDS, the "Bisexual Bridge," and the Political Economy of Risk in the Dominican Republic -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Selected Survey Results -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index.

In recent years, the economy of the Caribbean has become almost completely dependent on international tourism. And today one of the chief ways that foreign visitors there seek pleasure is through prostitution. While much has been written on the female sex workers who service these tourists, Caribbean Pleasure Industry shifts the focus onto the men. Drawing on his groundbreaking ethnographic research in the Dominican Republic, Mark Padilla discovers a complex world where the global political and economic impact of tourism has led to shifting sexual identities, growing economic pressures, and new challenges for HIV prevention. In fluid prose, Padilla analyzes men who have sex with male tourists, yet identify themselves as "normal" heterosexual men and struggle to maintain this status within their relationships with wives and girlfriends. Padilla's exceptional ability to describe the experiences of these men will interest anthropologists, but his examination of bisexuality and tourism as much-neglected factors in the HIV/AIDS epidemic makes this book essential to anyone concerned with health and sexuality in the Caribbean or beyond.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2018. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.